38 & 39. Two books with a connection from different genres

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

This week is a fun hunt and a chance to dive into a topic across multiple books. For the next two weeks, you are looking for two books that are connected in some way but are in different genres.

What does that look like?
Same author (like John Green's The Fault in Our Stars and The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet)
Same setting (like Legends & Lattes and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe)
Same topic (When Breath Becomes Air and My Sister’s Keeper)

The ATY listopia can get a bit wonky for our multi-week prompts, so use it at your discretion (and utilize the notes feature!)

ATY Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

What are you reading for this prompt, and how does it fit?

[Dubhease]

I am struggling with this prompt. The only thing I can think to read is a true crime book (like The Five or In Cold Blood) and then a fictional murder mystery.

[dalex]

I am planning to read two prize winning books by queer female authors.

Sci fi - These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs (2024 PKD Award)
Lit fic - Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo (2019 Booker Prize)

[Amy (Other Amy)]

At the rate I'm going the connection might be two books that have been sitting by my couch for more than a month. I keep finding pairs then realizing they're the same genre. I do have one pair of "monstrous bouquet on the cover" that are definitely different genres and I might do that.

[Joanna G]

I'm not super jazzed by my connection, but my plan is to read two by the same author, Thomas King. I picked The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative and The Back of the Turtle.

That's because both are on the first page of my Goodreads TBR, and I'll have another reading goal to read all of those. So it takes care of them handily.

As I said though, I'm not that excited by it, and especially if I end up coming across a fun connection by happenstance, they may get booted!

[Marie]

This is one of my favourite prompts, I had quite a few options but the one I was most excited about is The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World by Jeff Goodell and New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson. They're a science and sci-fi pair about rising sea levels, a non-fiction before and a fictional after. Even the covers look like they should go together:

[Dixie]

This is a fun prompt! My choices are:

The Ends of the World: Supervolcanoes, Lethal Oceans, and the Search for Past Apocalypses (science) and The Drowned World (science fiction): topic is climate disaster

And The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History (history) and Jane and the Year Without a Summer (fiction): topic is (obviously) the "Year Without a Summer", 1816.

[LeahS]

I'm reading Nightwalk: A Journey to the Heart of Nature and Nightcrawling. Genres are literary fiction and nature writing, with the obvious title connection of night and methods of locomotion.

For my '2016' reads, I have planned The Mandibles: A Family, 2029–2047 (sci-fi) and The Romanovs: 1613-1918 (history), with a connection of families.

[Ellie]

My favourite connection I've found so far is cheese! A Cheesemonger’s Tour de France is non-fiction about the history of French cheese and When the Moon Hits Your Eye is science fiction in which the moon turns into cheese one day.

[Tracy]

I'm seeing some really interesting connections so far!

These are ones that I'm considering:

Connection: Silence in the title
The Silence Factory (historical fiction / magical realism)
Wall of Silence (mystery)

Connection: Involves forests/woods, forest/woods on cover
Urban Forests: A Natural History of Trees and People in the American Cityscape (urban planning)
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (memoir)

Connection: Written by Chanel Miller
Know My Name (memoir, true crime)
Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All (middle grade fiction)

Connection: River in the title
There Are Rivers in the Sky (historical fiction)
The Frozen River (mystery/thriller)

Connection: Hillary Clinton
State of Terror (mystery co-written by Hillary Clinton & Louise Penny)
Rodham (alternate history about Hillary Clinton)

[Kathy]

These are my two possibilities:

Connected by Margaret Fuller:
Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Patacki - historical fiction
Summer on the Lakes, in 1843 - a travel memoir written by Margaret Fuller

Connected by the setting of Tuscany in Italy:
Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy by Frances Mayes - travel memoir
Al Dente's Inferno (Tuscan Cooking School Mystery #1) by Stephanie Cole - cozy mystery

[Charlsa]

I've wanted to read more about Martha Ballard since I read The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. Ariel's book was inspired by Martha Ballard who was a midwife in a small Quaker community on the Keenebec River in the 18th century.

These two books fit this prompt perfectly.

A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

and

The Midwife's Tale by Gretchen Moran Laskas.

[Pam]

This is my favorite ever 2 book prompt! My first option is to read fiction and non-fiction set in Ukraine and written by a Ukrainian author: The Bickford Fuse by Andrey Kurkov and The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy
A second option is 2 books with the same title: The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Fiction by Richard Flanagan who took the title from Matsuo Bashō ’s early 18th century poetic travel diary.

[Michelle]

The easiest way to do this IMO is to pair fiction/nonfiction related to the same topic.

Lots of choices for me:
The Overstory + The Hidden Life of Trees

roadside picnic + voices from chernobyl

We Need To Talk About Kevin by Shriver and A Mother’s Reckoning by Klebold

bright young women + the phantom prince my life with ted bundy

Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer and Leech by Hiron Ennes

When the Emperor Was Divine + They Called us enemy

the indifferent stars above + the hunger

I'm sure there are more but these are enough choices for me

[Monica]

I'm going to read Remember Me (mystery-suspense-thriller) by Mary Higgins Clark and Remember Me? (romantic comedy) by Sophie Kinsella.

[GailW]

The plan: connected to Fifth Avenue in NYC:

Fiction: The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin

Nonfiction: Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman by Sam Wasson

[Rosalind]

I plan to read Good Morning, Midnight (science fiction) by Lily Brooks-Dalton and Good Morning, Midnight (classic literary fiction) by Jean Rhys.

[Pam]

So many great ideas! I’m very interested to see what others choose.

[Pam]

Michelle wrote: "The easiest way to do this IMO is to pair fiction/nonfiction related to the same topic.

Lots of choices for me:
The Overstory + The Hidden Life of Trees

roadside picnic + voices from chernobyl

W..."

Michelle - I like your pairing of Roadside Picnic and Voices from Chernobyl! Another option, on the fiction side, is Yellow Blue Tibia. Part of it is set at Chernobyl.

[Donna]

I’m pairing a fiction and nonfiction about William Marshal.

A Place Beyond Courage (William Marshal #1) by Elizabeth Chadwick

The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, The Power Behind Five English Thrones by Thomas Asbridge

[Pam]

One other pairing of books, both of which I started this year but will not finish:
Fiction: The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
Non-fiction: Pessoa: A Biography by Richard Zenith

[Joan]

I'll probably just do something on WWII for this. A historical fiction and non-fiction. I can't seem to come up with anything else at the moment.

[Angela]

I sorted my WTR list by date published and found this pair that I might be using :

The Passage (Horror, Science Fiction) & A Visit from the Goon Squad (Contemporary Fiction)
First published June 8, 2010

Another pair I'm considering are
Prince of Fools (Fantasy) and My Friends (Fiction) as both are published on my birthday in different years.

[Amy]

Michelle wrote: "The easiest way to do this IMO is to pair fiction/nonfiction related to the same topic."

This is my plan - the same story told in non-fiction and fiction.

Erebus: The Story of a Ship by Michael Palin and The Terror by Dan Simmons. I've been wanting to read the latter for a while!

[Tracy]

I just found another intriguing pair:


Connection: Offshoots/retellings of The Wizard of Oz

After Oz (historical fiction/mystery/crime, suspense)
Dorothy returns to Kansas after being missing for 4 days, tells her fantastical story of Oz, is accused of the murder of Miss Gulch - the Kansas counterpart of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Toto (humor)
The story of The Wizard of Oz as told from the viewpoint of the somewhat snarky dog, Toto.

This duo might be hard to pass up, even though my other Top Choice has higher ratings.

[Jill]

I am pairing books by authors with the same last name:
The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry (historical fiction)
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (romance)

[Angie]

I have a list of ideas based on setting (bookstores, schools, libraries, etc.). In fact, the number of options are a little overwhelming. So I came up with another option:

True West: Sam Shepard's Life, Work, and Times (biography about Sam Shepard)

Motel Chronicles (short stories by Sam Shepard)



I own the Shepard biography, so I should really read it. But we'll see what mood I'm in next year.

[Misty]

I might do this prompt with me as the connecting element. I have three books right now by authors who I know that are staring at me! :) If I don't get to them before the end of the year I will likely read two of these three:
Anyone But Her by Cynthia Swanson
Guillotine by Delilah S. Dawson
Black by Catherine Winters

[David]

I'm going to read Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog) by Jerome K. Jerome, a humor novel written in 1889 and To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, a time travelers novel where the travelers go back in time to meet the characters of Jerome's novel!

[Denise]

If I move these books from my currently planned prompts, I can use them here and they are a good connection:
Milkman and Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

Or I may pair: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone and a fiction book about/with a therapist or person getting therapy

Or: The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore and a fiction book about a bookstore

[Andrea]

Connection: Robert Louis Stevenson
Kidnapped- fiction by Stevenson
A Wilder Shore: The Romantic Odyssey of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson- biography

Connection: unaccompanied minors immigrating from Central America to U.S.
Solito- memoir
We Are Not From Here- middle grade

Connection: surviving in Alaska
Drop City- historical fiction
Into the Wild- biography

Connection: the Troubles
Milkman- literary fiction
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland- history
Northern Spy- mystery

Connection: gay conversion therapy
Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family- memoir
The Miseducation of Cameron Post- YA

Connection: Syrian Civil War
The Beekeeper of Aleppo- fiction
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow- YA

Connection: solving puzzles in a house to win prize/inheritance
The Inheritance Games- YA mystery
The Wishing Game- contemporary

Connection: Libyan conflict (both by Hisham Matar)
The Return- memoir
My Friends- literary fiction

Connection: Jeanette Winterson's coming-of-age
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit- fiction
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?- memoir

Connection: latina protagonist navigating Ivy League
Anita de Monte Laughs Last- historical fiction/magical realism
Catalina- contemporary

Connection: boys in war
All Quiet on the Western Front- classic
The Things They Carried- historical fiction/short stories

Connection: white-passing black protagonists
Passing- classic
The Vanishing Half- historical fiction

[Agatha]

I'm going to listen to the audiobook of The Death and Life of the Great Lakes and read Nevada Barr's Winter Study, which is set at Isle Royale National Park on Lake Superior - the Barr novel is the next up for me in the series, and I found the history book in my to-read for free on Spotify Premium!

[Rachael]

For this set of prompts, I decided to pick these books because they have a similar word in both of their titles (I hope this counts)

- The Anti-Heroes (Contemporary)
- If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio (Mystery)

[Ketutar]

Dubhease wrote: "I am struggling with this prompt. The only thing I can think to read is a true crime book (like The Five or In Cold Blood) and then a fictional murder mystery."

Have you solved the problem?

I noticed you have All Our Yesterdays: A Novel of Lady Macbeth in your TBR. There's a lot that can be paired with it, starting with Hamlet :-)

[Judy]

I came onto this thread because I wasn't quite sure what book with connection from different genres meant. The comments were quite helpful. So many great ideas!

I'm considering pairing Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler by Ibi Zoboi with Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler or possibly the original version of Parable of the Sower with a graphic novel version of the same book.

[Judy]

Ooh, now I'm thinking of connections of women and water: Philip Marlow's The Lady in the Lake, Ann Clayton's The Mermaid's Daughter, Rivers Solomon's The Deep, McGuire Seanan's Where the Drowned Girls Go, The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea, or Mira Grant's Into the Drowning Deep

[Joanna G]

I read The Comeback for another prompt, but was thinking it would pair really well with any non-fiction account of the problems with Hollywood or the Me Too movement (Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement, She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement, Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood). I already have a plan for this prompt (The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative and The Back of the Turtle, both my Thomas King), but I was highly tempted to switch to this.

[Kristin]

Amy wrote: "Michelle wrote: "The easiest way to do this IMO is to pair fiction/nonfiction related to the same topic."

This is my plan - the same story told in non-fiction and fiction.

[book:Erebus: The Story..."

Thank you so much for this suggestion - I'm totally stealing it! I read Resolute by Martin Sandler last year and I am so fascinated by this era.

[Marie (UK)]

Book 1 A Tuscan Childhood memoir of childhood in tuscany. Only a 1 star read


Book 2My Father's House I gave this 3 stars I can see it as a book many will really enjoy. It centres around an "Escape line" centred around a Vatican Priest in WW II

I am not a lover of war fiction - I think it has generally been done to the death. Although this does cover things I had not read about before

Both books connected by Italian setting

[Kathy]

Book 1: The Lost Bookshop - Evie Woods
Fantasy/Historical Fiction

Book 2: The Bookseller at the End of the World - Ruth Shaw
Nonfiction/Memoir

[Sherri]

Book 1. Matterhorn. Fiction about the Vietnam War.

Book 2. Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, from Vietnam to Today. Nonfiction/Memoir about the Vietnam War.

[Denise]

I read the first one, fiction about The Troubles and will read a nonfiction
Milkman Anna Burns

[Michelle E]

Dubhease wrote: "I am struggling with this prompt. The only thing I can think to read is a true crime book (like The Five or In Cold Blood) and then a fictional murder mystery."

Sounds like a good plan: nonfiction and fiction. In Cold Blood was really well done,

[Michelle E]

I read a fiction and a nonfiction on Mental Illness:

More or Less Maddy by Lisa Genova, which covers mental illness, fiction. 3*

paired with

Danvers State: Memoirs Of A Nurse In The Asylum Memoirs of a Nurse in the Asylum by Angela Szot, mental illness nonfiction. 3*

[Misty]

Well, I changed my mind. I think I am going with two Amy Tan books: The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life which is a memoir and The Hundred Secret Senses which is one of her novels. I've been on a Tan kick lately. She's awesome.

[Joy D]

For these prompts, I read two books related to Aritifical Intelligence - one non-fiction and one fiction:

Non-fiction: Evil Robots, Killer Computers, and Other Myths: The Truth About AI and the Future of Humanity by Steven Shwartz - 4* - My Review

Fiction: We Lived on the Horizon by Erika Swyler - 4* - My Review

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

I will probably read history and historical fiction from the same period. Or possibly fiction and nonfiction that address the same social problem. I have a feeling this will happen by chance during the year, as I am often surprised at connections that develop between books as I read.

[Jana]

The Secret Life of Sunflowers - historical fiction
Jo van Gogh-Bonger: The Woman who Made Vincent Famous - biography

[NancyJ]

I didn’t plan this one, but I like it. Both of these books involved a woman going to a research station in an icy location. One near the North Pole, one near the South Pole.

Girl in Ice - fiction mystery thriller. Greenland
The Last Cold Place: A Field Season Studying Penguins in Antarctica - nonfiction, memoir

Also
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy - eco -thriller set on an island near Antarctica with penguins and other animals

[Samantha]

I read Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult and The Girls. They both revolve around cults. Forager is a memoir and The Girls is a historical fiction.

I had also consider reading two books involving food/cooking
My Life in France (Memoir) and A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking (YA Fantasy)

Another option I had considered but never came up with a plan for was a memoir from musician and a fiction book like The Lightning Bottles, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev or Daisy Jones & The Six